Creating a Google-Based Home
I love Google and Google products, and I make that no secret. For Christmas, my wonderful mother-in-law gifted me three Google Home minis and one Mickey Mouse Otterbox dock and IT. IS. EVERYTHING. I find myself researching in my down time what in my house can be controlled with my Homes and what I need to get to be able to control the things that can't be controlled.
Pros
Since much of my daily life is Google-centric anyways, utilizing Google Home has actually eliminated a minor step which has been helpful when my hands are full with Miles. Instead of having to unlock my phone and hold the Home button down, I can just go straight to voice command in the 3 most used rooms in my house and get everything done that I need. I'm a list, notes, timer and reminder person so this has been really helpful.
I also take advantage of utilizing the speaker aspect of the device. We have a few Bluetooth speakers that we use in the kitchen and dining room but we always forget to charge them. Not having that inconvenience has been helpful on the weekends when I'm spending a lot of time in the kitchen.
Lastly, it's pretty hard to hear anything in the office because of how acoustics work on that side of the house. While we haven't utilized it yet, Mike and I are pretty stoked about the Intercom feature on the devices. We can talk to each other real quick when stepping away might not be a safe option (which has happened in the past).
Cons
For some reason, I keep losing voice recognition with my Homes, which has been pretty annoying. We think it's because we haven't had a moment to register Mike as a user on the devices yet. I really recommend taking the time to do that.
Initial setup is freaking loud. I mean, loud. Keep that in mind if you're in the mindset like I was that you're going to set them up while there's a sleeping baby in the house. It's not a good idea. And there's no way to turn it down until the initial setup is complete and that sentence will feel like the longest sentence in your life. We keep all of our devices at 10% volume in our home, but our rooms are small and sound carries pretty well for the most part.
All in all, I'm so happy she gave me 3 instead of just 1. While they aren't currently devices that I use every day, I find it to be pretty helpful when I can. I can't wait to full convert to a smart home, whether or not everything connects to one hub or many!
Interested in getting one? Target carries them in chalk (like mine), charcoal, coral, and aqua.
Disclaimer: this post contains affiliate marketing links for products that come at no additional costs to you but do help fund the blog so I can write more product reviews for you! I received these as a Christmas gift from a family member, and am not sponsored by Google for my review. These are just my thoughts/feelings on the product that I wanted to share for any potential buyers like me!
